Pressure sensors have become ubiquitous the past few years as they have found their way into many types of products. Utilized in automotive, industrial, consumer, and medical products, the demand for pressure sensors has skyrocketed and shows no signs of abating.
Pressure sensor systems may include pressure sensors as well as other components. Pressure sensors may typically include a diaphragm or membrane. This membrane may be formed by creating the Wheatstone bridge in a silicon wafer, then etching away the silicon from the opposite surface until a thin layer of silicon is formed beneath the Wheatstone bridge. The resulting membrane may be surrounded by a thicker, non-etched silicon wafer portion or frame. When a pressure sensor in a pressure sensor system experiences a pressure, the membrane may respond by changing shape. This change in shape may cause one or more characteristics of electronic components on the membrane to change. These changing characteristics may be measured, and from these measurements, the pressure may be determined.
In some applications, it may be desirable that a pressure sensor have a specific form factor. For example, in many applications, it may be important that the pressure sensor be small, or have a thin form factor, or both.
But pressure sensors having these small form-factors may be difficult to assemble into larger components. For example, these pressure sensors may be too small to use with traditional semiconductor assembly tools for wire bonding or flip-chip assembly. Absent these well-established techniques for electrically connecting pressure sensors to their surroundings, device manufacturers have turned to expensive and laborious manual assembly techniques, with their drawbacks in cost, quality and yield.
Thus, what are needed are pressure sensors and associated structures that may facilitate the use of automated assembly processes and tools.